EXCLUSIVE: SECRET briefing on toll rates for BIG BUSINESS before public gets access

By Terri Hall - T.U.R.F. - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
The San Antonio Mobility Coalition, SAMCo, run by Joe Krier, along with the San Antonio Free Trade Alliance will be hosting a secret meeting October 19 at the Valero campus prior to even the PUBLIC getting access to toll rates and the toll rate escalation for 281 on October 22. The highway lobby that feeds at the public trough was slated to get advance access the PUBLIC hasn't been privy to. This is especially distressing considering SAMCO and the Free Trade Alliance are taxpayer funded. Citizens have to take time off work and head downtown to a place where parking is scarce (MPO mtgs at Via) just to hear this information on their own dime, yet our public agencies bring this vital toll tax information right to the business community's doorstep while they're all on the clock (some of whom are on the taxpayer's dime, too!).

It's an outrage that those who will profit off these toll plans get special treatment at the taxpayers' expense! However, through a turn of events, we asked that the tolling authority brief citizens FIRST on the toll rates at our Tuesday meeting and they AGREED! The taxpayers demanded transparency, sunshine, accountability, and that the public get TOP PRIORITY, and now the PUBLIC gets to scoop the HIGHWAY LOBBY!

Government ought to be operating without even the APPEARANCE of impropriety, this SAMCo meeting smacks of corporate cronyism and backroom deal-making which has become the norm with Perry and his highway dept.

Not only will the hogs at the trough be treated to the potential pricetag road contractors can reap for tolling our public highways, the stated purpose of the meeting is to strategize on how to influence the upcoming MPO vote that must approve the toll rates to move forward.

The purpose of the briefing is to provide:

1) An advance preview of the US 281 and Loop 1604 financial plans prior to these critical MPO meetings;
2) A forum to discuss cooperative action and joint strategy to support the financial plans and SMP amendments at the October 22 and December 3 MPO meetings.
3) Coordination of supportive resolutions, letters, emails, testimony, editorials, etc. prior to the final MPO votes.

Read the entire invitation here.

This meeting is significant because we caught them with their hands in the till using taxpayer money to lobby against the taxpayer and caught BIG BUSINESS getting special privileges NOT afforded the public until an MPO mtg Monday, Oct 22. Why does BIG BUSINESS need to know the toll rates and 281 profit levels before the general public?

SEE LIST OF CORPORATIONS GIVEN A SEAT AT THE TABLE BELOW

Mad yet? Read the list of the corporations involved in SECRET meetings with the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican governments to push for a North American Union in what amounts to forming a trade cartel. Time to dust off the anti-trust unit at the Justice Department!

Full World Net Daily article here.

As WND previously reported, the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC, dominated the SPP closed-door meetings with the SPP trilateral working groups, the trilateral cabinet members in attendance and President Bush, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, and Harper at the third annual SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec, on Aug. 20-21.

WND has also reported the NACC is a shadowy council of 30 top North American multinational corporations self-appointed by the Chambers of Commerce in each of the three countries to constitute the sole outside advisory to the SPP.

The 30 companies composing the NACC are listed on a memo posted on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website.

In the United States, the companies on the NACC are:

* Campbell Soup Company
* Chevron Corporation
* Ford Motor Corporation
* FedEx Corporation
* General Electric Company
* General Motors Corporation
* Kansas City Southern
* Lockheed Martin Corporation
* Merck & Co., Inc.
* Mittal Steel USA
* New York Life Insurance Company
* Procter & Gamble
* UPS
* Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
* Whirlpool Corporation

No union leaders, public interest groups, environmental advocates or news media have ever attended the closed-door of the NACC with the SPP.

According to a document on the Commerce Department's SPP website, the organization of the NACC was agreed upon by the three leaders on March 31, 2006.

"We are pleased to announce the creation of a North American Competitiveness Council," the White House announced the same day.

"The Council will comprise members of the private sector from each country," the White House said, "and will provide us recommendations on North American competitiveness, including, among others, areas such as automotive and transportation, steel, manufacturing, and services. The Council will meet annually with security and prosperity Ministers and will engage with senior government officials on an ongoing basis."

Read these to open your eyes to other secret meetings for special interests:

Secret meeting on TTC 69, corporations invited, public/press is not.

More secret meetings with corporations invited, public/press shut out.
here, here, and here.

Diminshed Access addressed in eminent domain bill vetoed by Perry

Fort Bend County claimed road projects to cost more if law passed
State Sen. Glenn Hegar disagrees with critics who want governor to veto legislation
By ZEN T. C. ZHENG - Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle - June 14, 2007

Citing potential higher cost in condemning private property for road projects, Fort Bend leaders are pushing to kill a Texas House bill that would obligate governments to pay property owners for decreased access to their land resulting from eminent domain.

A resolution passed by [Fort Bend] Commissioners Court urges Gov. Rick Perry to veto House Bill 2006, which was sponsored by Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, and sent to Perry for his signature on May 29.

The bill, which was adopted by both the House and Senate last month, aims to reform an existing state law on eminent domain to further protect private-property rights by requiring a comprehensive set of factors — including "diminished access" — to be taken into consideration in the land-taking and compensation process.
Eminent domain, commonly known as condemnation, is the practice in which a government legally seizes private property for public use while paying the owner for the "fair market value" of the land.

Failure to reach an agreement between land owners and the government often leads to condemnation.


'Diminished access?'
The notion of "fair market value" has been of much debate and propelled Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, to amend the House bill, which specifically obligates local or state government to compensate private land owners for "any diminished access" along state highways or toll road projects.

The amendment was Hegar's second effort to address the issue during the 80th Legislature after Senate Bill 1711, which he authored and was adopted by the Senate, died at the House.

"The current law doesn't take diminished access into account in considering the value of property. That's why I added the amendment to the bill," Hegar said. "If you lose a point of entrance to your property because a road is coming through, that affects the market value of the property."

In protesting the bill, county officials contend that often alternative "reasonable access" to the property remains while a normal access is eliminated because of condemnation and circumstances don't warrant compensation.

They also argue that "diminished access" is a subjective notion open to different interpretations, hence giving rise to potential dispute and litigation.

"The proposed changes in the bill to the government code, the local government code and the property code would result in significant cost increases for local government across the state of Texas," the resolution states.

Hegar dismissed the claim that the term "diminished access" is subjective.

He argued that land valuation can also be a subjective process, which often occurs when government entities resort to condemnation.

"What is the value of your property for the large part depends on the person who does the valuation on it," Hegar said.

Higher legal costs?
County Commissioner Andy Meyers said the bill would fatten the pockets of attorneys representing property owners. County Judge Bob Hebert agreed.
...
Hegar said if an alternative access remains as an equal access without causing problem for the property owner, then it would not be regarded as "diminished access" and would be a nonissue.

"It's no different than your house. If all the doors are boarded up except for your window, you can still come into the house crossing the window. You still have access to your house, but it's diminished," he said. "That's the problem the bill is trying to address."
Commissioner Tom Stavinoha said Hegar's effort was in response to requests from farmers groups, who Stavinoha said were not informed about the impact of the bill.

Hegar said he was approached by Texas Farm Bureau and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, whose members are concerned about possible condemnation of their land by the state Trans-Texas Corridor project, which is on hold due to a two-year legislative moratorium.
"It's a very real issue, more so in rural areas, such as Fort Bend," Hegar said. "I'm a pro-property rights individual. And I don't understand why private property rights are such a bad thing."
In urging Perry to veto the bill, the county resolution states that the bill would have "detrimental financial impact on local governments trying to improve mobility within their communities."

Hegar said the claim is "not supported by facts."

Read more